Emissions-belching nations yesterday were challenged to stump up for climate-related damage as a key Pacific islands summit opened, with low-lying Tuvalu declaring: “If you pollute, you should pay.”
The Pacific Islands Forum got underway in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, with leaders hoping to draw global attention to the region’s worsening climate plight.
“We really need to ensure that we continue to push for action from countries that are the most polluting,” Tuvaluan Minister of Home Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Maina Talia said on the sidelines of the summit. “Polluter pays should be on the table.”
Photo: AFP
Pacific leaders are to mount a renewed push later this week for a homegrown climate adaptation fund, an idea that largely hinges on financial contributions from foreign nations. They are also to push to speed the transition away from oil, gas and other highly polluting fuel sources.
“We cannot address climate change without addressing the root cause, which is the fossil fuel industry,” Talia said. “It’s disaster after disaster, and we are losing the capacity to rebuild, to withstand another cyclone or another flood.”
That is awkward for forum member Australia, a coal-mining superpower belatedly trying to burnish its green credentials.
Australia wants to cohost the COP31 climate conference alongside its Pacific neighbors in 2026, but first, it must convince the bloc it is serious about slashing emissions.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is making a rare appearance at the summit, in a trip designed to highlight the Pacific’s myriad climate threats.
“The decisions world leaders take in the coming years will determine the fate, first of Pacific Islanders, and then everyone else,” Guterres said. “If we save the Pacific, we save the world.”
Foreign dignitaries were briefly sent scuttling for cover when a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off Tonga’s coast early yesterday, but no major damage or injuries were reported, and no tsunami warning was issued. The summit had earlier began with melodic Tongan choir singers and dancing schoolchildren in traditional dress.
However, beneath the bonhomie rare fissures have been forming in the 18-member bloc, with Pacific nations torn over China’s security ambitions in the region.
“We gather at a pivotal time in our region’s history,” forum secretary and former Nauruan president Baron Waqa said. “We are at the center of global geopolitical interest.”
China’s interest, specifically, was evident long before Waqa’s opening speech. Large “China Aid” signs were installed outside the newly built conference venue, a US$25 million gift from Beijing.
Meanwhile, the US has dispatched US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell to lead its forum delegation. Campbell has been one of the key figures behind a US-led push to keep China’s Pacific ambitions in check.
“We need to remain vigilant on issues of regional security,” said Waqa, who has taken a dim view of the escalating Beijing-Washington rivalry in the past.
The other pressing security challenge facing Pacific leaders is the unresolved crisis in French territory New Caledonia, which reared its head on the opening day.
“We must reach consensus on our vision for a region of peace and security,” Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said. “We must honor the vision of our forefathers regarding self-determination, including in New Caledonia.”
Much of New Caledonia’s ethnically Melanesian Kanak population fears that voting reforms put forward by Paris could crush their dreams of independence.
It is a cause that resonates widely in the Pacific bloc, which is stacked with former colonies now fiercely proud of their hard-won sovereignty.
The fractious topic of deep-sea mining does not sit on any official agenda, but is likely be a topic of heated debate behind closed doors. Forum host Tonga sits at the vanguard of nations eager to open up the emerging industry, joined by fellow forum members Nauru and the Cook Islands, but others such as Samoa, Palau and Fiji see it as an environmental catastrophe in the making, giving their full-throated backing to an international moratorium.
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
With a monthly pension barely sufficient to buy 15 eggs or a small bag of rice, Cuba’s elderly people struggle to make ends meet in one of Latin America’s poorest and fastest-aging countries. As the communist island battles its deepest economic crisis in three decades, the state is finding it increasingly hard to care for about 2.4 million inhabitants — more than one-quarter of the population — aged 60 and older. Sixty is the age at which women — for men it is 65 — qualify for the state pension, which starts at 1,528 pesos per month. That is less than US$13
RSS